Company’s call center, retail stores to gain posts

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --5/5/14-- Jonathon Blitz, Director of Business Sales for Verizon in Arkansas, announces Monday at the state Capitol that the company is looking for candidates to fill 300 full-time jobs in Arkansas.

Verizon to add 300 jobs in Arkansas

Officials with Verizon announced Monday that the company will add 300 positions in Arkansas to be filled by the end of the year. Of the 300 jobs, 285 will be full-time positions.
(By Lisa Burnett)
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Verizon Wireless will add up to 300 jobs in Arkansas this year as a result of business growth, the telecommunications company said Monday.

Jonathan Blitz, Verizon’s director of sales, stood with Gov. Mike Beebe to announce the new jobs at a morning news conference at the state Capitol.

Verizon is hiring more than 200 people to work as customer-service representatives at the company’s call center in Little Rock, said Ginger Daril, a spokesman for the company.

“As we grow our customer base … that creates more volume,” she said. “So when our customer base increases we have a need for more customer-service representatives.”

The center in Little Rock is one of 22 nationwide that takes calls from Verizon customers.

The other jobs will be offered at different Verizon retail locations in the state, Daril said. The company is hiring immediately.

“We’re taking applications for these jobs,” she said. “We’re hiring immediately and hoping to fill all of the jobs within the call center this year.”

Daril declined to disclose how many people Verizon employs in Arkansas, saying the company does not release that information. Verizon has about73,000 employees nationwide.

Daril said all of the jobs are hourly positions, with retail workers also receiving commission packages.

When asked how much the jobs will pay, Daril said: “Pay ranges vary depending on the experience level of the applicant for both the callcenter and retail sales positions.”

She said both areas will “offer competitive pay and annual bonuses.”

Scott Hardin, spokesman for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission,said Verizon is not receiving incentives from the state to expand its business.

Verizon’s job announcement Monday comes after AT&T Inc. recently said it would hire more employees this year.

AT&T said last month that it plans to hire for 110 positions in Arkansas. The company currently has 80 jobs available. Of those, 50 are new to the state while the other30 are filling vacancies. The positions include retail and technician jobs.

In April 2010, Verizon officials said they had cut about 600 jobs in Arkansas since January 2009, when the telecommunications company bought Alltel Corp. for $28.1 billion. Verizon employed about 3,000 people in Arkansas after buying Alltel, but that number had dropped to about 2,400 by 2010.